Kenny says highest office brought into lowest repute

The Taoiseach has brought the "highest political office in the land into the lowest-possible public repute", the Fine Gael leader has claimed in the Dáil.

Mr Enda Kenny said that if there had been one constant in Mr Ahern's political career, it was an unbroken threat of "denial, shiftiness and contradiction". He said the findings and revelations of the Flood report had shown Mr Ahern to be dogged by "denials, explanations and clarifications". His failure to lead was "pathological".

He said Mr Ahern had a number of questions to answer about Mr Ray Burke's appointment and about the announcement of jobs and the purchase of a factory in Cork, the purchase of the Battle of the Boyne site and the introduction of retrospective legislation that benefited one person only, a Fianna Fáil supporter.

If Mr Ahern was the "man for the job" as Taoiseach, how could he have "appointed Ray Burke to the third-highest political office in the land? Was this not the acid test of his leadership and judgment?"

He was speaking during the debate on the Flood report which stated Mr Burke had received corrupt payments. Mr Kenny said that Mr Ahern doggedly pursued the "public elevation of a man known to be on the take", over whom questions hung and in respect of whom,"unease, rumour and other persistent allegations lingered".

"Is this the kind of leadership we get from a Taoiseach who says the tribunal report has nothing at all to do with him". Mr Ahern's "central presence" in "sordid events", including the appointment of Mr Burke to Cabinet and Mr Liam Lawlor to the Members Interests Committee, had done the State "no service", he said.

The Taoiseach said he was a democrat, but "he is behaving like a despot . . . just as his trusted lieutenants Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor were not above the law, so he is not above question."

Mr Kenny said bribery and corruption were the two new "monstrous epithets" added to Fianna Fáil's already-soiled reputation. Sleaze and scandal "have attached themselves umbilically to the senior coalition partner, blank cheques, Masri, Mahfouz, Haughey, Lawlor, Sheedy, Foley, Flynn, Ellis and Burke".

Praising Mr Justice Flood for his interim report on planning matters and payments, Mr Kenny said that in Irish political life "there can be no more weasel words, no more poor recollection, no more squirming, avoiding, posturing, shirking or smirking".

Ireland was perceived as clean until successive Fianna Fáil-led governments "unleashed sleaze and scandal on a scale never seen before" on the politics and institutions of the State.

Mr Ahern had questions to answer, he said, including what evidence he had received on Mr Burke from former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, and former ministers Ms Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and Mr Michael Smith. He asked what evidence he had provided to the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, when it was clear that a man was being appointed about whom "deep and legitimate suspicions" were held.

He should answer why he travelled to Macroom, Co Cork, to announce the purchase of a plant and job creation with the chief executive of the Elan Corporation, when the company's board had not approved it and the IDA had not authorised it.

Mr Kenny also called on the Taoiseach to explain his "strange interregnum decision to tax designate the Golden Island site in Athlone, against departmental and official advice" after Labour walked out of Government.

Mr Ahern should also clarify his role in the State's purchase of the Battle of the Boyne site,which netted huge profits for a close friend.